DigiShares – STO Platform to Tokenize Company Shares

Imagine that all the world’s inhabitants had the opportunity to invest in exciting projects completely without bank access. That all people in all professions only needed a smartphone to invest. Would it lead to an increased range of opportunities?

In 2017, the phenomenon, “Initial Coin Offering” (ICO) took the global crypto market by storm and more people have earned crazy buzz on these so-called ICOs. The concept was a type of crowdfunding to develop blockchain concepts and technology. It became very popular and figures from Coindesk say that in 2018 just under staggering 6,6 billion USD was collected through ICO fundraising.

Security tokens facilitates regulation

In retrospect, it has been shown that several of ICO projects were simply scams, which meant, among other things, that Facebook banned ads for crypto projects. In the light of the scams, stricter regulations were sought for how to collect money and information requirements on how the funds are used. As a result, many ICO projects were forced to register and regulate their own sales. In practice, a new type of tokens was born, namely Security Tokens.

A “Security Token” is a “proof” with the same characteristics as a stock and, for example, gives voting rights in the company. From Security Tokens a new concept occurred, Security Token Offering. In other words, a crowdfunding with the sale of tokens registered and regulated by the company country’s financial authority. Increased regulation also resulted in increased investment security and ICO became STO. However, when newly established crypto companies had to register their tokens, many began comparing the “crypto tag” with traditional stocks. This created a completely new market, namely securities on blockchain.

DigiShares at Fintech Disruption Summit. From the left, Adam, Diana, Mette and Claus.

We have talked to a Nordic company that specializes in just that. The company is called DigiShares and offers a STO platform to “tokenize” shares in companies. Then they are put on sale as a “crowdfunding”.

“We have a platform that helps companies implement a STO. We generate a Security Token per share and in our system we can have traditional investors and new shareholders with tokens ”says CEO of DigiShares, Claus Skaaning.

Approval of the Financial Supervisory Authority

One of their projects is an investment fund in Luxembourg where DigiShares is working to mirror the investment fund’s securities to blockchain to raise capital through crowdfunding. Scaling also tells us that they are working to get approval from the financial authorities in Denmark, but that they can already start elsewhere where regulations are in place, such as Luxembourg.

“This is completely unique as participation in private investment funds previously required completely different prior knowledge than it does today. Some of the vision behind STO and DigiShares is to equate access to good projects and investment opportunities. That way, anyone with a smartphone and the internet can be an investor, ”he elaborates.

New opportunities for the world economy

In the world today, there are large differences between the infrastructure found in different countries. As of now, the vast majority have a smartphone, and more and more have internet, but many lack access to, for example, bank and stock exchange.

We focus our eyes on India which, since 1990, has developed a strong IT industry with a great deal of expertise, but according to SNL.no, it has experienced a decline in economic growth due to pessimism regarding the Government’s ambitions for further development.

A total of 60% of India’s employment concerns agriculture and it is predicted that by 2020 there will be around 400 million people with access to the smartphone and the internet. If it becomes so that the Indian farmer can stand on his ground and use his mobile phone to invest in exciting projects, we recognize great opportunities for global growth and equality.

We ask DigiShares the question of what they think could happen to the world economy when everything you need to invest is a phone and internet access.

“Big question. It will be a very positive influence when a larger part of the world’s saved funds can be capitalized and invested in growth projects. Moreover, it will give a great advantage to those people who now have access to this type of project ”. replies Skaaning.

What can this mean globally?

Innovative solutions such as DigiShares help develop the global economy in a more balanced direction. One of the UN’s sustainability goals is about global economic growth. When individuals’ financial future can grow without disruption from politics and the infrastructure of the country in which they live, this will help ensure economic growth. Especially with platforms like DigiShare where you can invest with very low minimum deposits.

This article is not an encouragement to purchase and only to be considered as information about the project. The author has no ownership in DigiShares.